Buffalo Robes No. 3, THE END

A poem and illustration by

C. M. Russell

THE END

By 1881 when this billhead was completed, the Buffalo had all but disappeared with few exceptions. Charlie Russell arrived in Montana Territory in 1880, and perhaps did see a few small herds on the plains between the Yellowstone River and the Missouri.

When Buffalo Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are matted and framed, I will publish the completed piece. This is for a patron who brought this project to me at the Western Heritage Artists Footprints on the Trail Show at the Holiday Inn this past March.

Buffalo Robes No. 2, October 6th, 1868

Killing of Cows and Spikes

Image is from a photograph by L. A. Huffman

taken the Winter of 1881 in Central Montana.

BEGINNING OF THE END

The patron who commissioned these pieces also chose the titles - up front, based on the date of the paper. Huffman took a series of seven photographs of a buffalo hunt in the Winter of 1881, somewhere between the Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers North of Miles City. The two hunters were staying in a hut they constructed of long posts and buffalo hides that bridged a small coulee. Huffman produced stereoviews from several of the photographs, and this was one of them. Later, he also used this as a sepia tone postcard, and had retouched it.

Huffman also included text on the reverse of the postcard which indicated there were nine animals at this particular site. There were only eight that I could see, but perhaps one was out of this particular view. Huffman used a new camera he had acquired, and although this one appears to be taken from a tripod, several of the photos were taken from the saddle. Tripod or saddle, they are spectacular photographs in more ways than the obvious.

L. A. Huffman, Mrs.White Elk & The Ring, Part II

This is as close as I'm going to get to a finished product until this Saturday evening, September 29th, in Miles City at the Custer County Art & Heritage Center's 37th Annual Exhibit and Auction. If you are interested in seeing the difference between the artist proof and this one, you can find the first one in my previous post.

Some information has been passed to me by Joan Hantz, who works and teaches at Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, Montana. I wanted to know more about Mrs. White Elk before the Quick Finish so that as I'm working to finish it I have something to talk about. Joan kindly provided with this:

Census records for June 30, 1888
White Elk, 36 years old
Shaving Woman, wife, 31 years old.
Crooked was their son and he's listed as being 13 years old.
Magpie Woman, Mother in law, 71 years old.

Census records for 1896
White Elk, 44 years old and now registered as Jule White Elk.
Shaving Woman (Mrs. White Elk), 39 years old and registered as Anna.
The son Crooked did not appear in this census.

Records indicate that White Elk was still living in 1914. He was born in 1849. No records indicate a birth or death for Mrs. White Elk.

Jule White Elk fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876) at age 27. He was a member of the Elkhorn Scraper Society. He also fought at the Battle of the Rosebud, aka The Battle Where the Girl Saved her Brother. This battle occurred just days before the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of people: Kevin Layton and Mark Browning at the Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City. The story of how Mrs. White Elk and how this photograph came to be are little bits of history I can enjoy for a long time. I thought that the story needed to be told in my way, and both Kevin and Mark were very accommodating.

Gene and Bev Allen are folks I've known for many years. I consider them patrons. It was through them that I first learned of L. A. Huffman, and also sold me my copy of  the L. A. Huffman book. The source for the early signature was a blind stamp - a metal stamp which was used to indent the signature in the photographic paper or card stock on which the photograph was mounted. They also related to me some of the history of the man himself which I did not know. Gene and Bev also provided me with a scan of the lower portion of a Huffman carte de viste as well, which I've used as some of the text on my piece of art.

Michael Lee, a local photographer that I met some months ago, provided me with the copy of the photograph that I'm going to be affixing to the envelope after much trial and error. I wanted this to be on heavy photo stock, and reproducing the image that I had permission to use is not the easiest task. The image I had was a photograph of a photograph, so the image was a second generation image already. Thank you again Michael for all that you did.

I'm as ready as I'm going to be for the Saturday evening event.

A large Thank You to all of the folks I've mentioned, and those I haven't as well!

 

L. A. Huffman, Mrs.White Elk & The Ring

This is the Artist Proof for the piece I will be doing for the Quick Finish at the 37th Annual Art Invitational and Auction on the 29th of September in Miles City, Montana. Three of us will be completing our pieces to be sold during the auction. Mine will be a 100% donation to the Art Center, and my way of telling the story of Mrs.White Elk, and although there are three images that tell the tale of this Indian Portrait, I am using the second portrait that L. A. Huffman created during one sitting in his studio.

I have to do at least a one-off to see what the finished envelope will look like, and to determine what part of the piece I can finish in an hour.

This piece is a bit rough around the edges from where I'm sitting, but I'm really never satisfied. I can tell you there will be some changes in the composition regarding type size and placement. The lower portion I have done in sepia ink comes from an early Carte de Visite that Huffman produced for sale, and several of the elements are "covered" in my effort to use a map that is right for the areas that Huffman photographed.

The Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City, Montana, holds an extensive collection of the well known Western photographer, L. A. Huffman. I wish I could show you all three of the photographs of this beautiful woman, but I have permission to use only the one that you see above.

Perhaps between now and the end of the month, I can tell you a little bit more about this fabulous photographer.